CHRONOTOPES OF THE PERSON IDENTITY

Abstract

Projecting yourself – looking for yourself among others is a way of life of a man-asperson. Man so far is an artificial creation of history and culture, as in nature there are no guarantees for human existence. Their foundations are laid differently: the culture as an imaginary reality is more real than any reality of things for the person; the law of the culture existence is the law of imagination of «idols» (ideals, idealizations, mediations, etc.); man’s need «to get rid of the nature formation», «to set up a being», «to stop a moment» – imagining, identifying, categorizing, substantivalizing, absolutizing «things» – allows him aesthetically to guess the meaning (a sense image) of the contemplated one. People always talk about such principles with the help of symbols, i.e. some mythical «totem signs», primary memory keepers, which are in special (sacred, a priori) space and time. When they say what a «totem» and «space of its existence» actually are, they are already thinking in terms of philosophical metaphysics. The process of identity and self-identification of the social subject, i.e. the definition and redefinition of «yourself» among «others», is impossible without these a priori, transcendental bases. Identity is given by «chronotypical» value («chronotope» is an aesthetic act, a genre forming concept), where individual and group preferences in choosing a «vector of time» are culturally set. Formation and finding of your own identity, individuality are necessarily related to historical (social) memory, which takes place in a more or less coherent story, tale-narrative where «time» manages «space». In the era of historiographies (civilized, urban culture) a detective and identifying nature of metaphysical surmise is allured by the concept of «historicity» – a transcendental history that is essentially a speculative construction. History replaces philosophy?!.. Indeed, for many people history replaces philosophy (e.g., they say «philosophers» but mean «historians of philosophy»). And this «history» gets from textbooks to life. The historianmetaphysician creates a historical knowledge; he explains i.e. leads under the law. The historian-metaphysician argues, not on the basis of specific «points of view», but in their favor. «Points of view» (a metaphor-substances), as general statements, aren’t derived directly from individual expressions of observation, i.e. «facts», and are the most valuable part of the metaphysical understanding of the world. The moral and aesthetic ideals of the historian are expressed by implication: if the historian gladly writes the story, he can only end up with what he began. The answer to the question of the truth of historical narrative envisages the analysis (criticism and self-criticism) of the truth of «points of view», i.e. adopted simplification and idealization about the world. Thus, the theme of a personal emancipation from reificating action of the existent identity discourse can be «chronotypically» substantiated, for example, both from the standpoint of historicism – Catholicism/filioqueism/positivism and from the standpoint of inhistoricism – Orthodoxy/isihasm/existentialism. It should be noted a different ideological (Orthodoxy – «sacred chronotope»): the first – as orientation to the Kingdom of Heaven (the kingdom of conscience) «through» the history (filioqueism – «who» is the epiphenomenon of «what»; personality is an attitude: striving for «breakthrough in space» – «lets save our ass»), the second – «from» the history (isihasm – «what» is the epiphenomenon of «who»; personality is symbolized by the «heart» – hypostasis: striving for «breakthrough time» – «lets save our souls»). From the ideological side (where accepted ways of the comprehension of «things» are «things» themselves) a man is a measure of «things», therefore, a measure of his own identity: the personal identity is an ensemble of the self-identifications, their inclusion in one unique whole that is identical to itself; pattern of the identity (subjectness as «"Self" for "other’’» and subjectivity as «"Self" for "yourself"») is imagined (guessed, recognized) by the personality. And now, more than ever, the philosophical work is necessary for moving a focus from the subject awareness of the objective law of a social progress to the subjective one, personal sense, creative activity of people (when all «external» becomes «internal», when criticism becomes self-criticism).